Object number1979.2
Untitled
Datec. 1975
Artist
Alvin Loving, Jr.
(American, 1935-2005)
CultureAmerican
MediumOil and collage on cardboard with plywood support
DimensionsSight: 67 3/4 x 67 x 1 1/2 in. (172.09 x 170.18 x 3.81 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence B. Karter and Martin Sanders
On View
On viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
Label TextAlvin Loving was the first African-American artist to have a one-person show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in 1969. That show features his strictly geometric, hard-edge paintings, but in the 1970s Loving became inspired by the graffiti that was ubiquitous on the streets, trains, and subway cars of New York. He was drawn back to process-oriented work such as this vibrant abstraction on corrugated cardboard. In an artist’s statement about this body of work he wrote, “I’d tear up cardboard and move the parts around readily, I’d staple other colors, tearing pieces off, combining this one with another one. It’s a very free, kind of open way of working that feels good to me.” Loving was also fascinated by the physicality of the painting process of Jackson Pollock of the 1940s and 50s. Thus, although this work was made decades after the other paintings in this gallery, it shares a visual and procedural kinship with the earlier works.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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Christo (Christo Vladimiroy Javacheff)
1970
Culture: American
